Frames, Web Accessibility, The University of Arizona

Requirements:

Each frame is given a title that helps the user understand the frame's purpose.
Equivalent no frames information is provided.

Example of a web page created using frames

Frames allow you to break up the browser window into several pieces. Each section can display a different HTML file.

Frames quickly became very popular when they were first introduced by browsers in HTML 3.2. They became popular because they could make a web site much easier to keep up to date. A web master could now put all the repetitive information in a separate file. When the repetitive information changed, it was easy to modify the web site by editing one file.

Unfortunately, frames can cause usability problems for users and should be avoided whenever possible. Other, newer methods of storing repetitive information in a separate file have been developed. Server Side Includes and 'Shared Borders' in FrontPage are examples of solutions that offer the benefits of frames without the usability problems that they cause.

How to Code Frames for Accessibility:

Add a title to each frame. Example:


<html>
<head>
<title>A simple frameset document</title>
</head>

  <frameset cols="10%, 90%">
 	title="Our library of electronic documents"
	<frame src="nav.html" title="Navigation bar">
	<frame src="doc.html"  title="Documents">
  </frameset>

Include a noframes element
For every occurrence of frameset, include immediately after it a <noframe> element that directs a user to the appropriate web page. You may also want to describe the layout and purpose of frames and how multiple frames relate to each other. In the example below, this is called frameset-desc.html.


<frameset cols="10%, 90%" title="Our library of electronic documents"> 
	<frame src="nav.html" title="Navigation bar"> 
	<frame src="doc.html" title="Documents">
</frameset>

     <noframes>
	<A href="noframes.html" title="Library link"> 
    	Select to go to the electronic library</a>  
	<p><a href="frameset-desc.html">Descriptions of frames.</a></p> 
     </noframes>

Don't make an image a source for a frame:
To quote the Consortium's guidelines, "content developers must provide text equivalents of frames so that their contents and the relationships between frames make sense. Note that as the contents of a frame change, so must change any description. This is not possible if an IMG is inserted directly into a frame. Thus, content developers should always make the source ("src") of a frame an HTML file. Images may be inserted into the HTML file and their text alternatives will evolve correctly."